Head Tale

A Few Recent Covid Threads

Even though “Covid Is Over”™ according to many, it’s not really. Far from it actually…

Britain is being swamped by yet another Covid wave — 2% in England are currently infected, 1 in 30 in Scotland: 1.4 million people in the UK, a stark 40% week-on-week rise in prevalence. Hospitalisations highest since April https://t.co/hFiriFHY3r

— Alfons López Tena ? (@alfonslopeztena) June 23, 2022

Additional waves increase the chances of people being reinfected and while there was some who believed that getting infected was actually good for you because it gave you better immunity, that’s actually far from the case…

New data: Reinfection was found to substantially increase the risk of death, hospitalization, and adverse health outcomes, making strategies preventing reinfection critical.
Summary ? 1/9 pic.twitter.com/DUDpePgRce

— Sabina Vohra-Miller (@SabiVM) June 22, 2022

The number and variety of variants also continues to be a concern…

Omicron had ushered in a pandemic within a pandemic. Each successive BA variant has expressed new selective advantages & yielded less to our hope for durable immunity. Risk mitigation cannot be stressed enough. Again. https://t.co/uSne9VwZ90

— Abdu Sharkawy (@SharkawyMD) June 23, 2022

One newer theory I came across is that Covid may create an active, permanent viral reservoir in your body (which one person replies is similar to how the herpes virus functions.)

As to 63 patients with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), "Strikingly, we detect SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen in a majority of the PASC patients up to 12 months post-diagnosis, suggesting the presence of an active persistent SARSCoV-2 viral reservoir."https://t.co/zrD3h0yW0X

— Hiroshi Yasuda (????) (@Yash25571056) June 23, 2022

¶ Posted 22 June 2022 § News § Politics § Randomness § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: Covid, health, science

Another Major “Learning Driver” Milestone

First drive-thru!

¶ Posted 21 June 2022 § Family § Humour § Pace § Photo § Travel ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: economics, food, travel

Music Monday – “I got my driver’s license last week/Just like we always talked about/’Cause you were so excited for me/To finally drive up to your house”

“Driver’s License” – Olivia Rodrigo

¶ Posted 20 June 2022 § MusicMonday § Pace § Video ‡ Comments (0) °

Secular Sunday – Religion’s Role in the Klondike Papers

And it’s not good…

¶ Posted 19 June 2022 § Canada § News § Politics § SecularSunday ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: atheism, economics

Saturday Snap – Toilet Paper Stockpiles

You never known when the next pandemic will hit so we’ve gotten smart and started buying twice as much toilet paper as we would normally during our Costco runs…just in case!

¶ Posted 18 June 2022 § Humour § Pace § Photo § SaturdaySnap ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: economics, health

Friday Fun Link – Saskatchewan Political Contribution Search Tool

Not sure how long this has existed but recently came across a tool that lets you search political donations to various parties in Saskatchewan

(I think the cut-off for public disclosure is amounts $250 or over. So if you’re a manager and want to donate to the NDP or a union member who wants to donate to the Sask Party, keep it to $249 or less!)

I have to admit I’m disappointed – but not surprised – to see the Sask Party is raking in more from Hammonds than the NDP are!

¶ Posted 17 June 2022 § FridayFunLink § Internet § News § Politics § Sad § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: economics, saskatchewan

Throwback Thursday – Putting A Stamp On One Of My Most Memorable Library Moments (Sometime In Late 2021)

@2022 Canada Post (CNW Group/Canada Post)

I’ve been fortunate to have all sorts of happy, sad, and memorable moments working in the library over the years.

One of the most unique was helping a couple family members of Metis Leader, Harry Daniels, who fought to have his people included in the Canadian Constitution, come into the library to print a proof of a stamp that was going to be released the following (eg. this) year.

That stamp is now officially released but at the time, they told me that outside of Canada Post employees, I was likely one of the first half dozen people in all of Canada to see that stamp (and quite possibly the first who was not a direct family member or friend of Mr. Daniels!)

Quite an honour and speaks to all the ways that libraries help people in so many amazingly varied ways.

¶ Posted 16 June 2022 § Canada § Library § MemoryLane § Saskatchewan § ThrowbackThursday § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: cool, history, saskatchewan

TED Talk – Sleep Is Your Super Power

¶ Posted 15 June 2022 § Video § Wisdom ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: health, science

How To Win at Wordle Every Time

Two main strategies – use four words that are going to knock off 20 of the 26 most common letters in the alphabet then give you two guesses to pick the word or try to narrow it down to guess in the fewest tries as possible.

¶ Posted 14 June 2022 § Internet § PopCulture § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: language

Music Monday – “Wake up, it’s a beautiful morning/The sun shining for your eyes/Wake up, it’s so beautiful/For what could be the very last time”

Obviously an impossible question but whenever there’s a “What’s your favourite song of all-time” question, I always pick “Find The River” by R.E.M.

I love how melancholy and poetic and longing that song is.

There’s another song that’s in my Top 10 and which is probably a contender for number one – “Wake Up Boo!” by the Boo Radleys – which covers the same territory – yearning but also loss and death – but in a much more upbeat manner.

In fact, if you played “Find The River” at the start of my funeral (hopefully someday far in the future) and “Wake Up, Boo!” at the end, I’d probably be a happy ghost!

This is a fairly recent performance and it’s always weird to see bands you knew as a young person getting older, just like you are.

In fact, part of the reason I like this song so much is the line “Twenty-five/Don’t recall a time I felt this alive” which resonated because I first heard this song when I was in England in 1995 on a University exchange which also happened to be the height of the “Cool Britannia” movement and just an amazing time in my life – I jokingly say “Apologies to my wife and family but that four months in England was easily the happiest four months of my life.”

I was 22 when I went to England, not 25, but it was close enough to feel that same sense of the whole world being in front of me but also that it could disappear in an instant which is another reason this song resonated – I loved how it mixed a happy, upbeat sound with some dark lyrics about how summer happiness can be tempered by death.